Egypt's cultural shift reflects Islam's pull

Masses find solace in conservatism

March 21, 2004|By Lisa Anderson, Tribune correspondent.

"I think it would be a very simplistic approach to say that if a woman puts a scarf on her head she is backward," said Nagwa Shoeb of the university's public-relations department. "There are women who are very liberal, very high class and very educated who are veiled."

However, she said, "Even among my friends, when someone veils, we are stunned."

Many young women said that the scarf, which has come to connote virtue, is empowering. Not only does it ward off unwanted male attention but it often leads parents to grant more independence.

Said Shoeb, "I always say if they're covering their hair, it's OK as long as they are not covering their minds."

In recent years, however, the upsurge in conservatism among the primarily affluent AUC student body has prompted government officials to yank books from the curricula and shelves of the campus library for being offensive to Islam, even though they were cleared by the state censors, who review all imported and domestic publications.

In 1999, "For Bread Alone," by Moroccan novelist Mohamed Choukri, and four political-science textbooks, including "Muslim Extremism in Egypt: The Prophet and the Pharaoh" by Gilles Kepel, a leading expert on political Islam, were banned for indecency and slandering Islam.

Many AUC students likely will enter the ranks of the lawyers, doctors, engineers and other professionals who are the intellectual and financial backbone of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Why the movement holds such an attraction for the well educated and well to do is no mystery to Saad Eddin Ibrahim. An American-Egyptian sociologist at the university and a human-rights and democracy advocate, he has been jailed four times by the Mubarak regime, most recently for tarnishing the image of Egypt.

"With a high education, good occupation, you expect a good income and, if you have all three, you expect a share in power," said Ibrahim, 65, sitting on the terrace of his home in suburban Maadi.

"They're educated, they're intelligent--but they don't have a share in politics," said Ibrahim, describing the frustration rampant among the ranks of upscale Egyptians as "status inconsistency."

"The Muslim Brotherhood tells them it's because everything is corrupt and the government is an agent of the West. This is soothing to their self-respect," he said.

Slowly, the trend toward Islamization in Egypt is becoming the norm. But, for many Egyptians, it remains problematic.

"People are no longer sure of their life. They're not sure if this is the right thing. Now, they are mostly convinced that their modern look is wrong and, one day, when they get older, they have to be `good' and wear the veil," said Hala Mustafa, head of the political department at the quasi-governmental Center for Political and Strategic Studies at Cairo's Al Ahram Institute.

"The frustration. The lack of enjoyment," she said, sighing. "This is something you can see, how it can affect your life if you live in the Middle East or Arab countries. There is no place here to go out with friends, go for a drink, see good cinema."

Nothing symbolizes this change in Egyptian culture as eloquently as the veil and the growing number of women, rich and poor, who are adopting it.

Recently, the Egyptian media reported that Hala Shiha suddenly pulled out of a starring role in a movie with comic actor Adel Imam. It has been about a year since Shiha donned the veil only to reverse course some two months later.

According to the reports, her father, artist Ahmad Shiha, fears that the starlet is being pressured to resume veiling from former actresses who quit the stage and took the veil--fears that his daughter reportedly denied.

There is no question, however, that the social pressure to take the veil is significant, for movie stars and society matrons alike. According to Iqbal Baraka, editor of the popular women's magazine Hawa and author of the recent book "Al Hijab: A New Vision," the twist is that they are putting on the very thing that an earlier generation fought to take off, considering it a symbol of women's exclusion from public life.

Many educated Egyptian women readily rattle off the famous story of Huda Shaarawi. A wealthy feminist and women's rights activist, she defiantly ripped off her veil in the Cairo train station in 1923.

But these days, Agence France-Presse in Cairo reports, a Shaarawi granddaughter wears the veil.

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Egypt

Population: 74.7 million (2003 est.)

Percent Muslim: 94 (mostly Sunni)

Government type: Republic

Literacy rate: 57.7 percent

Legal system: Based on English common law, Islamic law and Napoleonic codes

Industries: Textiles, food processing, tourism, chemicals

Agriculture: Cotton, rice, corn, wheat, beans, fruit, cattle

Per capita GDP: $1,470 (2001-02); (U.S.: $37,600)

Sources: CIA World Factbook, U.S. State Department

Chicago Tribune

Egypt since colonialism

1922: Britain ends 40 years of control over Egypt, granting it independence. The following year, Egypt becomes a constitutional monarchy.